more qbico for all!

most of you kraut-heads should be familiar with Conrad Schnitzler, what with his part in the first Tangerine Dream album and his involvement with Kluster (who became the seminal kraut electonic band Cluster after Schnitzler left the group) and Eruption. this is an archived recording that sat in the vaults for 30 years before it was issued by the great qbico.

this recording is a tough one to sit through, sort of like any early synth recordings, a veritable wankfest of synthesized bleeps and blurps. but don't let that fool you, this is way better than many other synthesizer albums of the period, having more of a range of sounds and feelings than most bands that did this sound, and for 1972 it's pretty impressive. still, sitting through 40+ minutes of just synth is tough for anyone but the true kraut enthusiast and avid schnitzler fans.

i like this record, it's intense and at times it can fool you into thinking there are sirens going off. it sounds like a crazy soundtrack to some 70's futuristic movie, but i can understand that this is definitely not for everyone.

Conrad Schnitzler - Con '72
http://www.mediafire.com/?igjtdyoym5g

circle around the forest people

there are a lot of bands out there that do the krautrock thing today, but really none of them recapture the spirit of the early 70's as well as the band Circle does. Hailing from finland (yay!), these gents really really channel Can and Harvester well, especially on this album ("Forest"). more recently they have been falling into the "NWOFHM" territory, mixing a little Judas Priest with their Can worship. Live, they are not to be missed (the one time i saw them my head was hurting by the time they took the stage so i really wasn't enjoying anymore, but knew they were insanely good. the other bands on the show were Urdog, Dead Meadow, and Sword Heaven.)

since they are channeling Can and Harvester remember one thing: repetition is key. this album can be a little tedious, but it pays off and is a very good listen.

for fans of the afore mentioned Can, Harvester, Finland, the more peaceful moments of Acid Mothers Temple, No Neck Blues Band, and many other free rock bands.

they have like 50 albums out. they gotta be doing something right, right?

Circle - Forest
http://www.mediafire.com/?tuq0injlkjl

AMON DUUL II ALERT!

ok kraut fans, here's another dose of tripped out hysteria from those whacky germans AMON DUUL II. this is my second favorite of their albums "Wolf City." why not post my favorite, "Yeti?" simple. you can find that on a million other blogs, but i have yet to see this one anywhere. this is their third album, and they had finely tuned themselves. gone are the long sprawling jams (which is actually a downside) but they replaced that with a folkier edge and a more experimental breadth. they were truly hitting their stride as a band, and i really think that this one and Yeti can be interchanged in my top spot. an incredible album all around, and definitely one for fans of the Kraut sound, prog rock, and pink floyd (they definitely tread into the early 70's floyd territory here.)

great album.

Amon Duul II: Wolf City

http://www.mediafire.com/?jmtjdjzdemw

sex, drugs, judaism, and health food?

YaHoWa 13... what a wild bunch. formed in the early 1970's (though their roots start earlier), they were the musical outlet of a group called the source foundation, a sort of sex/drug cult centered around a man who called himself father yod (yod in hebrew means hand, or more appropriately hand of god.) they holed themselves up in a california mansion doing the lord knows what, procreating, and recording absolutely amazing primal psychedelic/kraut music. one review i've read of this band stated that they were the closest thing in america to krautrock at the time... while i'm not sure they were the only band sounding like that, they sure as hell were fucking close to the sounds of Can, Amon Duul, Gomorrha, Brainticket, Grobschnit, etc. but they had a different message than many "cults" of the time. having more in common with early judaism, they never really preached to join them or give away all your possesions, the only purpose of their music was to praise god and their father and to open your mind to the outside forces that act on your everyday life. never being quite open about the drugs, there is definitely an obvious psychedelic influence (look at the front cover of contraction or the back cover of to the principles... if you doubt me.)

but lets get to the music... primal and inept at times, yet cutting and urgent in sound, this band centered around the chanting of father yod and his timpani, yet the churning and buzzsaw guitar of djinn aquarian is the usual focal point. there songs were usually sprawling and unstructured, mostly just jams, but for jams this band sure could kick em out! (plus 10 lameness points for the mc5 reference!) always threatening to fall apart, yet never quite getting there, this band was incredible simply because they came from nowhere and were shut off from the world, yet made such a primal and rocking psychedelic sound unlike the usual religious fare, which tends towards folk. truly unique and utterly strange, this band is positively necessary listening for anyone who likes krautrock, psychedelic music, and cult bands. for fans of acid mothers temple, any of the bands i mentioned before, and most of the early independent artists catalogue (13th floor elevators, monks, etc.)

for more info google the source or yahowa 13. the source foundation is still around, and they just released 2 "new" albums, one being unreleased yahowa 13 material and one being a new recording which i am dying to hear... anyone?

father yod died in the mid 70s from a hang gliding accident. how fucking awesome is that?

here are two albums, my two personal favorites (though of the 13 released, it's hard to pick a favorite sometimes...) 1974's "im gonna take you home" and 1975's "to the principles for the children"

yahowa 13 "i'm gonna take you home"

http://www.mediafire.com/?wh2mt1nozo2

yahowa 13 "to the principles for the children"

http://www.mediafire.com/?taehe1mmhzm

and to finish the day, CAN videos!

ok, i'm pretty certain that i'm gonna talk about this band a lot on here. CAN rules all. without CAN there would be nothing. ok, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but CAN are quite possibly one of the most important bands EVER. influential in so many ways and areas, this band pioneered the kraut sound, paved the way for bands like this heat, circle, pretty much any drone band, and even made it onto the NWW list! WOW!

not convinced? check out these videos. the first is for the song "Mushroom" off the incredible album Tago Mago (which there are hundreds of reissues of, go pick them up now!). another of those weird post-communist german television videos, it makes you wonder what damo suzuki was singing about...




next is a live performance of the song "Mother Sky" (my favorite of the early CAN material), performed on a german talk show. watch the audience's reaction to what is happening. priceless.

germany strikes back

to add another axis power to this blog, here's a video of amon duul II. don't know em? go get their earth shattering, genre defining album "Yeti" if you can, there's an awesome cd reissue floating around, though i think it's out of print. the vinyl is a bit hard to come by. this band helped in creating a sound that most would call progressive rock, but those "in the know" would refer to as "krautrock" or "komische music." an offshoot of the much drone-ier and seminal german band amon duul, amon duul II just wanted to rock out instead of drone out. and rock they did. 12-string guitar, violin, knob twidling, and an insanely great drummer. they also got themselves a mention on the uber pretentious (but awesome) resource of unknown music: the nurse with wound list (check it out, tons of bands you have never heard of and much of it is incredible, more on that another time). check the groovy psychedelic video shit. this came from german television, they would run music videos after hours. oh, the post-communist bloc must have been a strange place.